How goes it? It goes well here, thanks for asking. I’m looking down the barrel of a four-day work week, then I’m off for several, some might even say many, days. So, I’m preparing to embark on a lame duck session between the just-expired weekend, and a wonderful vacation. Not really a fan of the lame duck session… but I’m sure I’ll endure it. Maybe.
How’d your Black Friday go? Get any good bargains? I didn’t personally buy anything, but I did sign-off on an unusual purchase that Toney initiated. I talk about it in the new episode of The Jeff Kay Show, available wherever you get podcasts. Basically, we booked a week in an unusual motel. …We’ll see how it goes. I’m sure it’ll be fine. And fun. By the way, here’s the summary of the just-released Episode 41 of the podcast:
In this one I tell you about the apparent Mother Of All Parties that took place on our block over the weekend, a couple of things I’m in the market for, an unusual Black Friday purchase, and the circumstances that led to our move from Atlanta to Los Angeles in 1996. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for listening!
One thing I’m in the market for is a stereo, just a normal shelf stereo that plays CDs and has detached speakers. Apparently, those are not available anymore? Now it’s just weird tubes that pulsate and light up. What the hell is that?? Mister, when I want to crank up the first Montrose album, or perhaps Dream Police, I want to do it on a real stereo. Not a cock-shaped flickering cylinder sitting in the middle of a table. What the hell’s going on? I feel like a man living in the wrong era. So, that’s my current shopping quest. Stay tuned.
Remember I told you guys about a close-call I had at the gym recently? I can’t remember if I talked about it here or in the podcast… it all runs together on me now. But last week, or the week before, I had lunch at Dairy Queen. I ordered the six dollar double-cheeseburger lunch special, and the seasoned citizen who rang me up said, “OK, that’ll be $5.30.” For the six dollar meal? Hey, whatever. Needless to say, the order was wrong. But close enough. Just roll with it. Who cares?
So, I polished off that tasty delight and drove straight to the gym, where I did an hour on the treadmill. And I struggled, my friends. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to maintain the integrity of my sphincter. That, or I thought there was a very good chance I might upchuck on the treadmill belt. But I took the speed down a notch and powered through without incident.
Of course, I said never again, and that proclamation stood for… a few days. Yesterday I had four(!) hot dogs from Sheetz. Two with sauerkraut, and two with chili. Then I went straight to the gym. Ha! I was talking with my brother while driving, and he couldn’t believe it. Four kraut dogs?! Why are you doing this? Why?? I told him I’d let him know if I let loose with a brown rainbow, and he seemed incredulous about the whole thing. But nothing happened. I had no issues whatsoever. Pass the beer nuts.
In case you’re keeping score, my current TV obsession is Bosch on Amazon Prime. It’s just a good old-fashioned cop show, with great characters and solid writing. No annoying artsiness, no preaching… Just good stuff. Highly recommended.
And finally, last time I mentioned how we were going to see “the Queen movie” as it’s known here at our house. Yeah, I know it’s actually called Bohemian Rhapsody, but we’re going with Queen movie. You can file a lawsuit if you’d like.
Anyway, it was very entertaining. A good film. The guy who played Freddie Mercury did a great job, especially considering the fact he had to wear a set of hilarious Party City novelty teeth in every scene. That dude should be commended for his performance. I have no idea who he is because I have no idea who anybody is. But he did a fantastic job with it.
And it was very funny, too. My favorite line: “Get out of the car, you treacherous piss flap!” I was howling with laughter, while everybody else simply chuckled. I don’t understand a mere chuckle in that situation. It’s hilarious.
In any case, we all enjoyed the movie and can certainly recommend it. It did feel a little bit like a collection of short stories that featured the same characters, instead of one big novel. If you know what I mean. More like a collection of scenes than one cohesive tale. But it was over two hours, and never felt overlong. It was good. Highly entertaining.
And it got me to thinking about other such films. When you do biopics about real musicians, it’s an iffy proposition. In fact, I think it fails most of the time. Am I wrong about that? During the coming attractions on Thursday, they showed a preview for a movie about Elton John. Will it be good too, like the Queen movie? Maybe, but probably not. Is that too cynical?
But when I think about scripted (non-documentary) movies about real musicians, one immediately jumps to mind: The Buddy Holly Story, with Gary Busey. Have you seen this? It’s great! I know Busey is a complete nut, but I love that movie. One of my favorites.
What are your favorite musician biopics? Tell us about it in the comments. You can include documentaries if you’d like. The Surf Report is not a police state. But I’m mostly talking about scripted dramas. Bring us up to date on it, won’t you?
If we are going into documentaries, a couple jump immediately to my mind: About the Young Idea, the story of The Jam, and We Jam Econo, about The Minutemen. I don’t even really like The Minutemen, but the documentary is great. I also recall one about Killer Kane, former bassist of The New York Dolls. That thing was a gut-punch, a really good movie. I think it was called New York Doll. Saw it on Netflix several years ago.
What do you have on this? Also, who would you like to see a movie about? A scripted biopic? Tom Cruise as GG Allin? Ha! That would be interesting. Tell us about it in the comments.
And don’t forget to click through one of our Amazon links prior to purchasing many high-ticket items, or whatever. Pass through any of them, shop as normal, and that’s all there is to it. They’ll peel off a very small percentage of whatever you spend, and send it my way. It’s an easy and painless way to support my efforts here. Thank you guys in advance.
I’ll be back on Thursday
Have a great week!
Now playing in the bunker
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eBay for used hi-fi components, build yourself system. I’m typing this while listening (Pulp, since nobody asked) to one of my two old school hi-fi’s, this one with speakers I bought in 1987. They’ll probably outlast me. I have no time for tinny lame cock shaped glowing “speakers” either, that’s like watching a movie on a cellphone.
edit – I just looked on eBay – only $2000 for a used Nakamichi Dragon! Bust out those mix tapes.
I liked Kevin Spacey as Bobby Darrin in “By the Sea”
“Sid and Nancy” was great, too. Freaky, can’t turn your head away great. Gary Oldman was fantastic.
Speaking of musicians, etc., my longest childhood friend texted me the other day. She grabbed 2 tickets to see the Rolling Stones in Denver and said she’ll pay for the tickets if I can fly my ass out there. I have 5 months to save for this but I have to grab those flights NOW since it’s over the Memorial Day weekend.
Hi Madz,
The Bobby Darin movie bio was called “Beyond the Sea”, after the hit song by Jack Lawrence that Darin recorded in 1959. Lawrence took the melody of the song from the French song “La Mer”, written by Charles Trenet, and performed by a number of French (and French-speaking) musicians and singers, including Django Reinhart. Here’s Trenet’s own version of the song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXQh9jTwwoA
. . . and here’s Bobby Darin’s version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEIDep_UMmk
By the way, Spacey did all his own singing in the movie. Pretty gutsy for a non-singer.
John
JTB, you are absolutely correct. Beyond the Sea.
I recall seeing Kevin spacey sing another time on stage before all the harassment charges. I want to say it was for Tony Bennett’s birthday perhaps. Boy, has he got a nice voice. Yes, I recall he did his own singing and shockingly well.
The Bosch books are also really good.
I concur. I’ve been reading the Bosch books for years. The TV show does a great job with them.
The Queen movie was great. My sons, 13 and 10, also enjoyed it and lamented afterwards “why is today’s radio music so lame? Where’s the creativity these days, like those guys?” I had to smile.
Thumbs up on the Buddy Holly Story, which I also saw on stage in the West End in 2002 (equally good).
Don’t Look Back, the early Dylan doc, is worthy.
Hail Hail Rock n Roll, a concert/doc about Chuck Berry, is also up there – Keith Richards on guitar and Joey Spampinato from NRBQ on bass – finally the backup band he deserved.
Walk the Line, about Johnny Cash, was lighthearted and Hollywoodish as expected, but still entertaining.
And the king of all mockumentaries, This is Spinal Tap, gets an honorable mention.
Just finished season 4 of Bosch – it is excellent.
I have no doubt that, along with Little Richard, Chuck Berry was the Paul the Apostle of Rock ‘n’ Roll, but I suspect that Keith and Joey represented the band Chuck didn’t have to pay. For fifty years and more, he traveled without a band, using local talent that worked cheap and more or less knew his catalog. According to Al Kooper, the entirety of Chuck’s instructions to the locals for their one-night-stand was, “When I raise my foot, that mean that if you playin’, you should stop playin’, and if you not playin’ you start plalyin'”. It’s hard to imagine a world in which Chuck Berry is underappreciated, but we livin’ in one.
John
Simple Denon models from eBay may be nice, since Denon obviously, accept no substitute or something. There are some D-M41s and D-T1s.
My CS504 sounds great. It’s old enough to run for president.
Shit. That’s a Dual, not a Denon. But I stand by my earlier statement.
Denon stuff is OK, Sony ES pieces are fine and more common. I’d look for some NAD or Rotel or Dual or ARCAM pieces that made their way stateside that nobody is interested in. It’s all going to sound better than some Sonos shit (I have a Sonos Play 5)
Don’t look now, but behind the movie makeup, the PR machines, the pseudo-religious texts and the Hollywood star-maker machinery, Tom Cruise IS GG Allin.
John
The best music biopics are where the actor actually sings the songs him/herself. Gary Busey is great as Buddy Holly. Val Kilmer did a great job in “The Doors”. Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn in “Coal Miner’s Daughter”. Beverly D’Angelo, who played Patsy Cline in that same movie should have played her in “Sweet Dreams” instead of that stiff, Jessica Lange, who didn’t sing.
But Joaquin Phoenix just sucked as Johnny Cash. I’m a huge Cash fan. Johnny wasn’t a real great singer, but Phoenix can’t sing a lick and it showed in Walk the Line. That killed the whole movie for me.
Sissy Spacek was incredible as Loretta Lynn. Forgot about that one. And Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles was a fine performance.
Reese was great as June, but yeah, Joaquin can’t sing. I loved Shooter Jennings playing his father in the movie.
I went to see the Freddie Mercury biopic over the weekend with my fambly as well. We all like it. I especially liked the part in the middle of his career where he turned into Freddie Jerkury for a while. I couldn’t agree with you more about the Buddy Holly biopic. Busey’s depiction was maniacal. In the same vein, I think that Dennis Quaid did a good job at playing ‘The Killer’ in the Great Balls of Fire flick. The Johnny Cash biopic was so bad, I recall thinking that it was actually a June Carter Cash biopic instead.
You can still get some great stereo systems if you buy the components separately. Go to http://crutchfield.com and you can even call them to help you put a system together. They also provide great tech support.
I don’t know if I would say it was one of my favorites – but I recently watched American Hot Wax. I have probably not seen that movie since it was on Cinemax back in the day.
Still using my original components, a Kenwood KR-770 with a Technics SL-10 linear tracking turntable (which works standing up and the lp vertical that I bought in Japan), two bose 301 bookshelf speakers, a Teac 8-track reel to reel and an Akai GXC-735D cassette deck. All are still working great though I have had to do a repair here and there.
I recorded many many hours of King Biscuit, BBC and other concerts on WMMS back in the day on the reel, then made many copies for friends and friends of friends.
Hi Jeff! I am loving the podcast, but I have one suggestion… lighten up on the “you know’s”… not sure if you’ve noticed or anyone has pointed it out, but you could make a pretty good drinking game out of how often you add “you know” to the beginning or end of a sentence… It’s gotten very distracting just some friendly and constructive criticism!
In broadcasting school they taught us to use a pregnant (that was the word they used, don’t give me shit) pause instead of filling the gaps with superfluous words and sounds. Hard habit to break but it can be done.
I don’t think the guy who played Freddie in the Queen movie wore fake teeth. He stars in Mr. Robot and has some jacked up teeth. The first season of Mr. Robot is a brain twister, I highly recommend it.
They did use prosthetic teeth, they tried to use bigger ones, but the actor has a small framed face, so they didn’t work.
Get On Up! is an excellent one on James Brown. Chadwick Boseman
was spot on. Mr. Brown would have been proud.
Mr. Brown, long after he could no longer dance and shout as he had in his youth, continued to perform. Which is a problem if you’re predominantly known as a dancer and a shouter. In the mid-90s, he continued touring, and stopped off in Italy to sing with Pavarotti for 40,000 of Luciano’s closest friends. This video shows what a talented man can do when he can no longer scream and set the stage on fire with his feet. Check out the train meta-sound at :55.
John
Come on, old man, insert the damn link . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb-B3lsgEfA
I saw James Brown at Sunfest in Florida in 2003. He still had a few moves left. He died just 3 years later.
Dylan played the same festival and sucked in a major way, as I have heard he often does, playing live.
Honorable mention to Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
Oh! How could I forget??? Forrest Whittaker in “Bird”.
And this may not be a popular choice, but I have to give credit where credit is due. Michael Douglas as Liberace in “Behind the Candelabra” Matt Damon was excellent in that, too.
Bought a Kenwood system over the Christmas-New Years week in ’85. Floor model, paid less than half price for it. About 20 years ago replaced the receiver with a JVC, but the rest of the system is still intact and working great! Turntable, Cassette deck, CD changer added afterward obviously and nice tall speakers that I’ve never even tried to max out for fear of having to replace some windows. When I see young people listening to music through ear buds on their phone I want to shake them violently…but then I realize that what they’re probably listening to doesn’t really warrant anything better.
Crutchfield is a great source.
Best concert movie is Stop Making Sense.
For Hollywood treatment liked Walk the Line and Lady Sings the Blues
I don’t know if it was great, but the biopic of Germs frontman Darby Crash called What We Do Is Secret was interesting and the guy who played Darby Crash was really good.
I bet the DQ server gave you a senior discount.
I’m still rocking my Carvers and JBLs.